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Joey Gallo home run video: Joey Gallo homered last night for Frisco in game 1 of the Roughriders' doubleheader in Midland, snapping a nine game stretch in which he hadn't homered for Frisco. You can check out video of that blast hereYou can see him hitting a single here:
Gallo followed that up with a 3 for 4 performance in the second game, which brings his AA slash line to .278/.364/.586 on the year. While that's impressive, he's also got 65 Ks in 152 AA plate appearances -- a 42.8% rate that is scary. Gallo's K-rate in Hickory last year is what had people questioning how legitimate a prospect he was, and that was just 37%.
You'd normally expect a player with a K rate that high to have a miniscule batting average, even given the number of home runs Gallo has hit. However, Gallo's batting average is bolstered by a .456 BABIP -- he's not making contact a lot, but when he does, he is hitting it hard.
Gallo's statistical profile is so extraordinary that its almost impossible to find comps for him. However, he's impressed scouts this season with his improvement in his approach and the way he reduced his K rate while at high-A Myrtle Beach (where he struck out in 26.4% of his plate appearances). And Gallo is still exceptionally young for his level -- he's the second-youngest player in the Texas League, and 11th youngest in AA.
There's a school of thought that holds that it is important for a player to be challenged and to struggled when he's in the minor leagues, as it teaches him to make adjustments, and being able to make adjustments is crucial for having success in the major leagues. That school of thought, for example, believes that the problem that Chris Davis had in rocketing through the system wasn't that he was rushed, but that he had too much success in the minors, and when he got to the majors and had some issues exposed, he didn't know how to fix the problems.
The fact that Joey Gallo has been mortal in AA will hopefully allow fans who were clamoring for him to be up now, or in September, to tap the brakes. The jump from high-A to AA is a big one, and Gallo is learning what he has to do to have success against better pitchers. The folks who are observing him most closely seem pretty confident that he'll be able to make those adjustments, and will have success at the major league level. We just need to be patient, remember he's just 20 years old, and enjoy watching him crush homers in the minors while he's learning.
UPDATE -- For some reason, MILB.com will say they have a video of something, like a Gallo HR, then sends me to a different video. I don't know what the deal is. But enjoy the single, anyway.
UPDATE II -- Let me try embedding again:
